Syrian Center for Media & Freedom of Expression

 

Silence of Pens . . . And Noise of Control

 

The State of Media and Press Freedom - Syria 2008 – 2009

 

Introduction

 

The end of the mandate of the previous U.S. administration formed the beginning of the restoration of moral balance between the security requirements on one hand and the protection of fundamental freedoms, on the other hand, the lost of this sought balance – around the world – came as the objective outcome of the globalization of the state of emergency produced by the method of management of the war on terrorism over the past years, where many of the individual and civil rights were plundered, then to limit the scope of the fundamental right of freedom of expression illegally under vast slogans starting by the fight against terrorism to the abuse of religious feelings reaching to protect national security and national interests. According to that, many of the Governments applied serious controls on the freedom of circulation and access to information, both governments which launched the war on terrorism or those that considered this war against them. . .

 

In Syria which is originally under the umbrella of state of emergency, since nearly five decades, the meeting of the previous cases on its land, and the fact of occurring in the eye of the hurricane, formed a model environment to legitimize control and to ease and waste individual and community rights which lead to the silence of pens and noise of control.

And today, with the beginning of the restoration of desired moral balance around the world, and the appearance of encouraging signs for the management of conflicts within the Arab world rationally, and the exit of Syria out of the neck of the bottle, an urgent need appears to curb the tyranny of uncontrolled control, so pens may regain its vitality … as the long tyranny of the cognition and suppression of freedom of expression have lead to the deterioration of the achievements of human civilization, decadence, ignorance, spread of corruption, erosion of moral values and to low value of the human person to the lowest degree.

 

Legal environment

 

(A year of stalemate and promises)

 

1.         Laws and Legislations:

 

A.        Publications Law No. 50 of 2001:

 

The time period covered by the report did not witness any change in the Publications Law despite the multiple promises of government and other promises of the highest levels in this particular, which noted on several occasions to complete the new Code of publications which will avoid the disadvantages of the current Publications Law, which forms in many of its provisions a serious breach of international standards for the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, although the Syrian government has pledged to uphold and maintain, in addition to breach of Article 38 of the Syrian Constitution, that says: (every citizen has the right to express freely and openly say by writing and all other means of expression).

The Center emphasizes the need to hasten the fulfillment of the promises of the government with regard to the amendment of the Publications Law No. 50 of 2001, since the privilege of this law may be that it is the only law in the whole of Syria, which all without exception agreed on the need of its amended, from journalists and lawyers and even the officials themselves, even in the Syrian Ministry of Information, and probably since the first moment of issuing this Law because of the contents of the materials prevent free and independent press because of lots of materials working on:

 

-          Imprisonment counting on loose legal terms.

-          Imprisonment penalty for slander or libel or contempt.

-          Imprisonment for those who publish or distribute material the Government considers relevant to incitement on crimes.

-          Punishment for publications that call for constitutional and political reform.

-          The existence of a long list of classified subjects. 

-          The existence of an integrated system of control.

-          Imprisonment in case of publishing adds for foreign companies or organizations.

-          Providing License on the basis of (Type) in order to prohibit political topics.

-          The absolute right of the Minister of Information to prevent the entry of foreign publications to Syria.

-          Negative discrimination on the basis of nationality.

-          Prevention of political prisoners from the ownership or management of publications.

-          The absolute right of the Prime Minister to refuse to give a license to any print.

-          Government controls on journalists.

-          Illegality to change the owner or the manager or editor-in-chief, but only after the approval of the Ministry of Information.

-          Management standards and Conditions for the ownership or management of a print.

 

B.        The law of the Union of Journalists No. 1 Date 14 1 1990:

The time period covered by the report did not witness any change in this particular, although the previous period has witnessed the formation of a committee of journalists for the aim of drafting a new law working on the conversion of the union to a real professional association working to develop the profession of journalism and protecting and defending the interests of journalists on the grounds of association. But despite the end of the work of this committee and delivering the development of proposals and amendments since long months,  and until the time of issuance of this report there has been no amendment to the law and we cannot know the fate of the expected amendments.

In addition to that, there was a new proposal by the Federation Council at its last session to establish a union, especially for workers in occupations related to information, such as printing workers and other professionals.

 

Until the amended of this law, it will privilege as the worst law of Journalists unions around the world - Without any exaggeration - because of the following reasons:

 

-          Lack of recognition of the journalist working for the private media.

-          "Total dependency" in the objectives and powers of the ruling party.

-          Extraordinary propriety to the Minister of Information and Prime Minister.

-          The right of the Council of Ministers disbandment the General Conference, the Council, and the office and branch offices.

-          "Discrimination and control" of membership and registration and practicing the profession of journalism.

-          The disruptive powers of the President of the Union.

 

C.        Law No. 68 date 1951 1 17 of the Radio Regulations and its amendments:

 

The time period covered by the report did not witness any change in this particular, since the Syrian government has adopted a policy of gradual abolition of the State monopoly of the media. After nearly a year of allowing private publications according to the new law of publications in 2001, the Legislative Decree No. 10 dated 2/4/2002 was issued and added an article to law No. 68 of year 1951. This added article excludes private and commercial radio stations of the decision to restrict the right to use the frequency antenna (radio) with the government and military administrations according to article 1 of law No.68 year 1951. Article 2 of law No.68 year 1951 stated on the following:

a.         Commercial and private radio broadcasts, limited to programs of music, musical programs and ads, are excluded from this inventory subject to the provisions of article 8 of Law No. 68. The decision to permit these broadcasts comes from the Prime Minister upon the proposal of the Minister of Information.

b.         Rules, assets and conditions for granting licenses to private commercial broadcasters, in addition to the conditions of the exercise of its functions and work are determined by regulatory decision issued by the Prime Minister on the proposal of the Minister of Information.

 

Thus, the Syrian government has abolished its monopoly only songs, music, advertising, commercials, and social and light programs, and remained monopolizing every other thing. And there are no signs or even promises to change this reality until the moment of issuing this report.

 

D.        Legislative Decree No. 15 of 2008 to issue the creation of "The General Establishment for printing":

This decree took effect from the date of 1/7/2008, and the matter of concern in this decree is that it makes the process of printing newspapers under government management and control of the Ministry of Education, as article (2) of the decree states that: "A public establishment of an economic nature is established in the Syrian Arab Republic called 'The General Establishment for printing' which has full legality and financial and administrative autonomy, and linked to the Minister of Education. Its center is in the province of Damascus."

Article (3) of the decree states that: "The establishment aims to: Schools textbook printing and distribution to its branches in the governorates and the printing of all publications of the Ministries of Education and Information."

 

In this case, all the governmental newspapers are printed in through this establishment in dependence to the Ministry of Education in the process of printing, which is far away from the domain of printing newspapers.

 

In addition to that, the law of the establishment granted tax exemptions and wide financial concessions, as article (9) of the decree states that: "Imports of the establishment of technical devices and machines, printing and other printing requirements are exempt from all financial charges and taxes, customs, municipal and statistics fee and other charges"

In this case, the establishment has the advantage on the rest of the printing presses which makes it more competitive, so it is possible to control the print market in general.

 

2.         State Control on Media

The intellectual, legal and administrative structure of the Syrian state is still based on strong state control and control of all sectors of community through governmental systems under the state of the interface between the concept of the State and the ruling party created by Article VIII of the Constitution currently in force, despite some changes that appeared on this structure lately. However, it is still confined in the range of economic and the perception of the media is still - even with the existence of private media - the property of the State and Ruling Party, its job is confined to explaining the policies and attitudes of the State and the Party and mobilize the public for support. The system of the Syrian Ministry of Information Article (3) states that: "The task of the Ministry of Information is the use of all media devices to inform public opinion trends and for the consolidation of Arab nationalism in the country and support the links with the Arab states and friendly nations, according to the principles of the Arab Socialist Baath Party and State policy"

The Syrian State continues through the Syrian government and its institutions to govern all of the key operational process information at all stages of development and the only development that took place during the time period covered by the report is represented in the increase of this control, as the presidency of the Council of Ministers prevented all public bodies, agencies and public organizations and natural and legal persons to carry out researches or statistical bulletins, including the issuance of any of the information or figures only after the approval of the Central Bureau of Statistics starting from the date of 17/11/2008.

Thus, the Central Bureau of Statistics is added to the list of institutions and government agencies that have applied the screws on the Syrian media and the free flow of information through the following:

 

-          State monopoly for the distribution of publications through the establishment of the public distribution of publications, which was established by Legislative Decree No.42 of 1975.

-          State monopoly of the advertisement through the Establishment of the Arab advertisement, "Ealan" formed since 1963.

-          State monopoly of the news, through the Syrian news agency "SANA".

-          The monopoly of granting and withdrawal of licenses and by giving the absolute right to the Prime Minister on the proposal of the Minister of Information.

-          Control of administrative procedures and Executive regulations through resolution No.297 of 2001 issued by the Minister of Information.

-          The absence of a law of the right to access to information.

 

Functional Environment

(Continuing violation of rights)

 

At the financial level, the global financial crisis has not reflected largely on the situation of Syrian journalists – which is very poor before the crisis – as the salaries and wages in Syria are very low, the same applies to the free press "the writer". Allowances series of press articles start - in general - with 300 S.P (the equivalent of about $ 6) and sometimes up to 5000 S.P (the equivalent of almost $ 100) for the large press investigations.

 

But what is necessary to stop and raise the alarm for is the contractual structure for workers in the profession of journalism in Syria, both for the governmental and the private media, which constitute a violation of the rights of journalists in all the meaning of this word.

The results of the analysis - done by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression of a random sample included 50 journalists from the private sector – showed that the rate of 97% of the journalists working in this sector do not have any employment contracts, but oral understandings links them with the employer which puts them under the mercy of the employer and make them vulnerable to demobilization arbitrary at any time without any job guarantees, or any rights of social insurance such like retirement, medical insurance or work injuries amid suspicious silence and overlook of the Union of Journalists and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and the Syrian Parliament.

For the majority of journalists working in governmental media which is under the authority of Ministry of Information it doesn't show a much better situation, where abnormal forms of contracting are famous and they are contrary to much of the Labor Law and the instructions of the Syrian Ministry of Finance such as temporary employment contracts for 3 or 6 months or a year, also the billing and bonus systems. These terms also don't include any guarantees, both in terms of continuity or the rights of social insurance. The estimated number of employees in accordance with these functional forms in the media governmental is thousands of workers some of them work on temporary contracts renewed annually for more than twenty years also amid suspicious silence and overlook of the Union of Journalists and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and the Syrian Parliament.

 

Map of Media in Syria

(Classified)

 

(The Ministry of Information - without clarifying the reasons - rejected to provide us with lists of newspapers and the media issued by government agencies, as well as lists of newspapers and publications of private media)

(Unofficial information)

 

The estimated number of private newspapers, which have been licensed in Syria until 2009, is 150. While the record of the past year licenses is 120. We were able to identify 8 publications ceased to operate and canceled the license this year due to interruption of its publication. These publications are:

Serial   Print name        The licensee     Province

 

1          City      Ghaleb Abu Kherish    Damascus

2          Home sports    Khalid Habbu  Damascus

3          Family doctor   Yusuf Ashqita  Aleppo

4          Voice of Justice           Mohamed Farouk Bashir         Lattakia

5          Lightning          Mohamed Khair Abu Jeib        Damascus

6          Welcome         Mohammed Waleed Al-Akawi            Damascus

7          Wider spread   Ghada Fakoush           Lattakia

8          Where to go     Abdel-Halim Ghazal     Damascus

 

To conclude that an increase in the number of licensed publications in the current year is 38 than the past year, and there are still 250 permission Requests that meet all the conditions still not done, note that there is a very large number of publications authorized by the applicable requirement of the cancellation of the license due to disruptions in its publication.

(General Profile)

 

-          Governmental Media:

 

This year witnessed the inauguration of our colleague Samira Almasalma as the first woman as chief-editor for a daily governmental newspaper in Syria, which is (Tishreen) newspaper. However, the governmental media is still carries within it a series of serious crises, some are Linked the state of media in Syria in general, both in terms of state control and legal environment, the other as a result of the unique legacy of the carried heavy inheritance for long decades. Whatever the government in Syria tried to postpone the confrontation of these crises and to escape forward waiting for a miracle, it is necessary to adopt a plan of a national emergency based on a different basis from the current mentality, which works for:

 

-          Change the status and function of the existing state and governmental media to the media of public service.

-          The restructuring of human resources and administrative structure to stop the financial bleeding and the state of inertia and bureaucracy, in addition to ensuring the rights of workers.

-          To achieve a fair and equal distribution of information among all the Syrian governorates and areas of focus by stopping the process of centralization media production and the expansion of local media and community.

 

-          Party Media:

The party media in Syria is still weak and ineffective in the Syrian public opinion, just like the political parties themselves, and the opposition parties or their newspapers did not receive the opportunity to legal recognition, where there is no law of the parties in Syria till the time of preparation of this report. Any such party newspapers are published in secret and simple printing techniques and they are irregularly distributed also in secret to the members and associates of these parties.

-          Syrian Kurdish Media:

The Syrian government continues to reject the deployment of the Kurdish language, in principle, regardless of the means or the subject, while the deployment of foreign languages such as English or French is allowed, and even the introduction of printed books in the Kurdish language is banned. Syrian Kurdish Press has emerged mainly as a party press attached to banned Kurdish political parties, even cultural press, which imposed the nature of particular topics in terms and discussions. They are either party bulletins or cultural newspapers in particular the deployment of Kurdish culture and Kurdish Privacy which did not turn to public newspapers, and still operate in secret since its inception to the present day by simple tools and techniques.

 

 

Electronic Media

(Iron Censorship is a Firm Methodology)

 

Electronic media is still under the trusteeship of security in Syria, since this baby was decided to be a foundling, as each of the Ministry of Information and the Syrian judiciary and the Syrian Parliament discharged from him, to be left in the care of the State Security Department - Pending the issuance of the promised law of Electronic Media – which shown a great interest in it and deputed it to one of the most important Central branches " information branch" that the follow-up and growth control became his great concern in cooperation with major educational specialists who were brought from the free world, such as Canadian company called "Platinum" which equipped the Syrian government with the latest techniques of blocking, filtering and surveillance through the use of "Thunder Cache" proxy. The company says about its work in Syria: "Our simple goal is to satisfy our customer".

The continues tighten control on Internet cafes is still in effect both on the licensing procedures and required approval by the Political Security Division of the Ministry of Interior by requiring owners of Internet cafes orally - especially those adjacent to the housing location of universities and university - the need for registration of personal data of Internet users at their Internet cafes and maintain a record containing the triangular name of the user and his mother's name and personal identification number or passport number and the device used by the attendance and the time of arrival and the time of leaving the coffee shop and requiring owners of cafes to deliver this register to the delegates of the security agencies when presence.

The total number of blocked sites until the date of 1/5/2009, according to what we have been able to ascertain and obscured the fact is of 225 sites, in an increase of 65 sites over the previous year. This is in addition to the expansion of direct interference of the security agencies in the work of the sites through direct contact with administers and ask them to removal of an article or story or non-publication of a book or not to publish certain news about a certain point.

 

A list of sites blocked by the General Organization of communication:

 

No.      The Domain

 

1          10452lccc.com - 2          12avdar.com - 3          14march.org - 4          3almani.org - 5          4law.co.il - 6          aafaq.org - 7          aaramnews.com - 8          aawsat.com

9          abdallaazzam.4t.com - 10        abubaseer.bizland.com - 11        achr.nu/achr.ar.htm - 12        ado-world.org - 13        ahewar.org - 14        ahrar.org.lb - 15        ahrarsyria.com

16        ahyawatan.wordpress.com - 17        airys.org/ - 18        akhawia.net - 19        akhbaar.org - 20        albaladonline.com - 21        albawaba.com - 22        aleftoday.com -

23        aleftoday.net - 24        alhiwaradimocraty.free.fr - 25        aljeeran.net - 26        al-kataeb.org - 27        alkomi.net - 28        all4syria.org - 29        all4truth.com

30        almahatta.net - 31        almarfaa.net - 32        almobahala.cjb.net - 33        almoslim.net - 34        almufleh.net - 35        almustaqbal.com - 36        alnazaha.org

37        alparty.info - 38        alparty.org - 39        alqanat.com - 40        alquds.co.uk - 41        alsafahat.net - 42        alsear.cjb.net - 43        alseyassah.com - 44        alssiyasi.com

45        alwatan-alsouri.com - 46        amazon.com - 47        amude.com - 48        amude.net - 49        anbaar.net - 50        anhri.net - 51        annahar.com - 52        annaqed.com

53        anonymization.net - 54        anonymizer.com - 55        anonymouse.org - 56        anonymouse.ws - 57        arabtimes.com - 58        armanc.org - 59        arraee.com

60        asharqalarabi.org.uk - 61        asharqalawsat.com - 62        atassiforum.org - 63        babil.info - 64        beidipedia.wikia.com - 65        beirutletter.com

66        bingeh.com - 67        binxet.com - 68        blogspot.com - 69        bonjoursham.net - 70        cedarguards.org - 71        dadkurd.com - 72        dad-kurd.org

73        damdec.org - 74        dctcrs.org - 75        dimoqrati.com - 76        efrin.net - 77        efrinarengin.net - 78        elaph.com - 79        elaphblog.com - 80        facebook.com

81        fatehforums.com - 82        forces-libanaises.com - 83        forsanalsham.org - 84        forsyria.org - 85        freelebanon.org - 86        free-syria.com - 87        future.com.lb

88        futuremovement.org - 89        futureyouth.org - 90        gemyakurda.net - 91        gilgamish.org - 92        guardster.com - 93        guluberin.net - 94        hadatha4syria.com

95        hamacity.com - 96        hariri2005.com - 97        hevgirtin.wz.cz - 98        hizb-ut-tahrir.org - 99        hpg-online.net - 100      hro-maf.org - 101      idlib.org - 102      ikhwan.net

103      ikhwansyria.com - 104      informersyria.com - 105      islam-kurd.com - 106      islammemo.cc - 107      islammemo.com - 108      islamonline.net - 109      islamway.com

110      jidar.net  - 111      josor.net - 112      katib.org - 113      kdps.info - 114      keskesor.eu - 115      keskesor.info - 116      khayma.com - 117      khilafah.net - 118      knntv.net

119      kurdax.net - 120      kurdcds.com - 121      kurdchr.org - 122      kurdistanabinxete.com - 123      kurdistan-times.com - 124      kurdistan-times.org - 125      kurdmedya.com

126      kurdnas.com - 127      kurdroj.com - 128      lahdah.com - 129      lebanese-forces.com - 130      lebanese-forces.org - 131      lebforces.org - 132      maktooblog.com

133      mandaee.cjb.net - 134      menassat.com - 135      metacafe.com - 136      metransparent.com - 137      middleeasttransparent.com - 138      moheet.com - 139      mokarabat.com

140      multiproxy.org - 141      muslm.net - 142      mypage.ayna.com/nusairee - 143      nessrin.com - 144      netarabic.com - 145      new-lebanese.com - 146      news.ahrar.org.lb

147      newsyrian.net - 148      nidaakurd.cjb.net - 149      nidaasyria.org - 150      nowlebanon.com - 151      odabasham.net - 152      opensyria.org - 153      opl-now.org

154      panoramasouria.net - 155      partiya-azadi.net.ms - 156      pdksp.net - 157      peseroj.net - 158      proxify.com - 159      proxy.org - 160      proxyone.com

161      proxyweb.net - 162      psp.org.lb - 163      pyd.se - 164      qamishlo.net - 165      qamislo.info - 166      rabeadamascus.com - 167      radiosawa.com -

168      raye7wmishraj3.wordpress.com - 169      reformsyria.net - 170      rekeftin.com - 171      rezgar.com - 172      rojava.net - 173      sahrcs.com - 174      sandroses.com

175      savesyria.org - 176      semakurd.net - 177      shermola.herforum.net - 178      shermola.sos-forum.net - 179      shrc.org - 180      shrc.org.uk - 181      shril.info

182      shro-syria.com - 183      soparo.com - 184      sorea.jeeran.com - 185      soriagate.net - 186      sotaliraq.com - 187      sotkurdistan.net - 188      souriaheart.net

189      surfola.com - 190      syriaalaan.com - 191      syriahr.com - 192      syriakurds.com - 193      syriamylove.com - 194      syrianelector.com - 195      syrianforum.org

196      syriatribune.com - 197      syriatruth.org - 198      tagged.com - 199      tawhed.ws - 200      tharwacommunity.org - 201      tharwacommunity.typepad.com

202      tharwaproject.com - 203      the-cloak.com - 204      thefreesyria.org - 205      thesolidarity.com - 206      thirdalliance.net - 207      thisissyria.net

208      tirej.net - 209      transparentsham.com - 210      transparentsyria.com - 211      truveo.com - 212      tsdp.org - 213      upsyr.com - 214      video.aol.com

215      webwarper.net - 216      welateme.net - 217      wifaq-syria.com - 218      yasaree.net - 219      yassardimocrati.com - 220      yek-dem.com - 221      yekiti-party.org

222      youtube.com - 223      zamanalwsl.com - 224      zamanalwsl.net - 225      zanoubia.tv -  

 

Classification of Blocked Websites:

Classification    Number           Percentage

Kurdish            48        21%

Political opposition

33        15%

Media  27        12%

Forums            26        12%

Lebanese         22        10%

Islamic 16        7%

Human Rights   14        6%

Newspapers  TV and Radio

13        6%

Proxy   10        4%

Cultural            9          4%

Iraqis   6          3%

Palestinian        1          0%

 

 

 

Comparison of the number of sites blocked in 2007 to 2008 by type:

Classification    Sites blocked in 2007  Sites blocked in 2008

Kurdish            35        48

Political opposition

28        33

Media  21        27

Forums            9          26

Lebanese         23        22

Islamic 13        16

Human Rights   5          14

Newspapers  TV and Radio

9          13

Proxy   7          10

Cultural            9          9

Iraqis   0          6

Palestinian        0          1

 

 

 

The Reality of Teaching Media in Syria

(A year of painful confessions)

 

Within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Damascus, and behind the Executive Office of the National Union of Students of Syria, there is a small building with three-storey terraces and a number of offices devoted to faculty members and some representatives of the Union. A newly amendments have been done lately, the color of the walls has changed and the number of fans also. On the outer door there is a small plate that says: "Department of Media and Libraries"

Media Section, in terms of management, is one of the ten sections of the four components of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Damascus, which is the only university in Syria, between the amount of public universities (6) and private universities in the amount of (14) University, that has the specialist section teaching of the media.

Media Section was established in 1987 under the name of the press section and the name has recently turned to the Media Section. Currently, this section includes one of two education systems, one is regular, and the other is open learning. Students packed in a small place that is not absorbed in the halls or the stands. The total number of students in the Media Section in 2008 is (1300) for regular system, and (8000) for open learning. Faculty members - don't not exceed 20 members – are not enough to meet the current needs of the growing numbers of students. Confessions were made of impeachment by the concerned, and promise to go beyond the endless shortcomings and new devises and tools for work. On the ground, the state of education in the Department of media is still the same:

 

-          Unemployed graduates, and in the best, working in fields not related to Media related, like secretary ,trade occupations and even some manual work because of the lack of opportunities in the media market, which are already limited.

-          Non-specialist backward educational curricula taught in lectures through dry narrative theory that provides only the old information that are outdated.

-          The practical aspect does not have a minimum viable presence of tools, printing equipment in laboratories, studios, television and radio, not even a library for media.

-          Student of the Department of Media graduate and still does not know how to write a news story or even distinguish it from the article.

-          Traditional way of education represented in the conservation and indoctrination.

-          Non-qualified teaching staff that does not have the practical experience, most of them graduated from countries of the former Soviet Union and Egypt, in addition to the low ratio of teachers to the number of students.

-          The absence of specialization, and the degree of Master of specialized features are not clear, and the idea of the degree of Ph.D. in the media is away from the proposals.

-          There are no plans to teach students methodologically or for rehabilitation to work in media.

-          Other factors linked to the absence of planning, poor governance and corruption.

These are the main features that characterized the reality of education in the Media Section at the University of Damascus.

 

No independent department at the University of Damascus and no new section at the University of Aleppo

 

Although it is acknowledged that the Media Section in its current status at present in the Faculty of Arts is not correct due to the improper construction and the small size and the large number of students, and that Media Section is supposed to be independent of the laws of the Faculty of Arts due to the fact of its special requirements, so it must be treated like other scientific colleges and has the techniques that it requires. Despite numerous appeals calling for the conversion of this section to the College of independent building containing many specific and technical disciplines in the field of media, however, the draft of the independent department of the Faculty of media is still far in the research, discussion and study in depth by the Joint Commission which was established during the past months between the Ministries of Information and Higher Education to discuss the development of the media Section. This project which confirmed its presence and technical readiness and requirements the of the (former)President of the Media Section  of the University of Damascus, Dr. Feryal Mihanna, the reply to come was to work on the development of this section until this large project comes to reality.

 

This means rotating in the same place in her opinion. It should be noted here that this Committee and before the start of one of the scheduled meetings to discuss the development project asked the Associate Minister of Higher Education of the site Media Section because they does not know the exact location and that this section is unknown to them, some section's professors also requested copies of the project because they did not see it in advance, as well as managers of media organizations requested more time to study the project as it had been distributed only at the beginning of the meeting, also, the director of Syrian State television called for the identification of the time allotted for the meeting, as everyone is connected to his work, although she requested at the end of the meeting to identify the attendances because she did not know any of them. The Chairperson of said that the Media Section in Syria has become equal to the sections of the media in Somalia, Djibouti and Mauritania if it was not behind them, and that Syria deserves better than this. With the end of the meeting, the Media Section put a paper containing the logistical and technical requirements for the development of the Media Section in the short term. The paper included the need for a device Skinner, color printers, computers and Internet lines, and dishes with TV Shows (as all are not available in the section now), and to propose the so-called emergency plan for the development of curricula, bring devices and techniques, infrastructure development, provision of an enabling environment of hardware and technologies and other scientific and technical aspects. The meeting was over, and the reality is still the same.

 

On the other hand, the lack of such an enabling environment - from the viewpoint of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Aleppo - is what has hampered the implementation of the decision of the Minister of Higher Education No. / 285 / dated 8/8/2007 that decided opening the Media Section at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Aleppo from the 2008-2009 semester, and mandated University of Aleppo to ensure the scientific and material requirements of the opening, where it was supposed based on this resolution the opening of another Media Section in the mentioned University in addition to the Media Section at the University of Damascus. However, the surprise came not to include this section on the list of acceptable educational differentiation for the university for the previous academic year. Because of miscalculations and a lack of infrastructure and the lack of appropriate scientific competencies for the field of Media, this resolution is still under study and implementation for an indefinite period, until Aleppo University finds teaching staff in the field of Media and contract with them to teach in the delayed opening of this section until further notice because of the absence of any province of a doctorate degree in the media in Aleppo. The university will be forced to send a number of repeaters for a doctorate degree from other countries advanced in the field of Media in preparation for opening the section. It is worth mentioning that the University wrote to the Radio and Television Center in Aleppo for any staff with a certificate of information or even university certificate, the answer was that most of the working in the media field in Aleppo did not have degrees in media. It is important that the resolution remained without an execution until the implementation of advanced studies of all aspects of the implementation of the furniture and education staff and the Plan of educational plan and other laboratories supplies.

 

Poor educational curricula and absence of practical aspects

 

The Faculty of Arts requires final year students in the Department of Media (formal education) to provide the so-called Graduation Project, as it is assumed by the graduating students to prepare an academic project and discuss it with a special commission or a supervising professor. The student can't graduate from the Media Section unless he presents the project. It is worth mentioning in this connection that the student result of frustration experienced during years of study and the result of lack of the simplest tools, the fact that the graduation project is free of such decisions for the preparation of scientific research, The exception of media research methods taught to students in the first year without the presence of practical aspects and applications, and some seminars, which is often the goal of student conduct for the appropriate label for the help provided to the test. As a result, students of media during the preparation of draft graduating projects often use the other pre-graduation's projects, with certain modifications by the change of name or re-wording of some sequences and then print the project without compromising the content and, therefore, without making what are new, so that graduation projects are duplicate copies yearly. The only concern to the student is to obtain a label to be added to the rate of post-graduate, and when it comes to the practical aspect of the Graduation Project like filling the forms form for example, we find that the student either fills the form by himself, or in the best uses his colleagues and acquaintances who replace members of the sample considered, and in both cases, the results obtained at the end of the draft of graduation will be of non-feasibility. As a result of the low proportion of teaching staff in charge of the draft to the number of graduate students, we find that it is rare to follow-up the students during the project preparation and content reading and knowledge, where the process of discussing the project takes less than few minutes until the evaluation of the project and to give the mark. If there was someone who cares about preparing draft of the graduation, the difficulties experienced are many, including the difficulty of obtaining information and the lack of appropriate devices for research and the lack of references and the difficulty of Internet connection and the lack of a specialist media library. Section does not provide any skills or experience of the students both in the field of media work, or in the preparation of scientific research information, just only theoretical courses.

The curriculum in the Department of Information combines everything related to the social sciences and humanity in general and the information economy and sociology, politics, philosophy, history and psychology, by that, graduate students are familiar almost with everything and yet not specialized in anything. It outlines the literature dealing with the press and some of the old traditional information that must be transmitted and conserved by the students.

 

The "Media Program" in Open Education

 

On the level of the open education system, which was open at the beginning of the academic year 2001-2002 as an experiment applied on the basis of recent adoption of a new philosophy of education provides the opportunity for all students wishing to pursue their university degree in the terms that there rates were low, or regarding to their old age, In order to meet the payment of registration fees for one-time value of 300 Syrian pounds added to the payment of 3000 pounds for each course presented by the student. This system under the Media Section is also problematic and full of obstacles that prevent the development of the reality of the media in Syria, and even more problems in the system due to the absence of minimum quality requirements for education and the absence of any form of practical applications and research for study, not even the presence in false form as in the case of formal education. It is not only the lack of tools needed by the student (of the studios and cameras and laboratories, etc  ...) but also to the structure and composition of the curriculum, even without reference to the theory of mechanisms and technical practical methods. The taught curriculum are theoretically privilege, The content of the taught articles does not depart from the non-public information that are not depth, that fall under the general culture in the media. As well as the short period that the students of open education receive, this is not sufficient information for graduation. The students attend one day a week on Friday (official holiday in formal education) and the lectures are repeated on the following day. These few days are not sufficient to produce an efficient media graduate, if the qualified exception of provided during the days of attendance to the student are only theoretical study. The only satisfaction is through questions and meetings with the teaching staff, which is almost the same staff in the formal education. Although the decree on the creation of a system of open education believed that open education would be a reservist academic education, furthermore, the adoption of the Parliament to qualification for the graduates of open education to take advantage of the certificate for the conduct of appropriate action for each specialization, In addition to the decisions of the Ministry of Higher Education, which ensured a student of open education the recognition of equivalency testified as a testimonial formal education and to be treated the same treatment. However, open education students are suffering from such social stigma that called for a second level, in particular from official authorities.

 

Despite the fact that the university achieved a very significant returns from this education - according to some estimates about 2 billion pounds each year - but they use the same infrastructure of formal education without providing any additional services for this infrastructure (Bearing in mind that these revenues be sufficient to build more than one university), and it has not so far made on any steps for supporting or development of this education. And even those in charge stood on the sidelines in front of the increase in the number of open education students, until the number in the academic year 2005-2006 came to the boundary of the absorptive capacity of admission in the Open Education, which is much lower than the numbers present. With this situation, the university was unable to absorption, so the solution was in controlling the numbers of students by announcing the suspension of registration in the Media Section.

 

Steps Forward (Very Few ... But exist)

 

1.         Opening an investigation into an allegation of the Syrian center for information and freedom of expression by the Ministry of Information of hindering the draft of development press section at the University of Damascus, which was the start of preparation for more than two years in cooperation between the Syrian center for information and freedom of expression and the Institute of Fojo for the development of information of the Swedish Agency for Development on the one hand, and the Department of Media Section at the University of Damascus.

 

2.         The provision in the proceedings from the journalist Luai Hussein against Al-Watan newspaper: as the course of this issue showed since its inception, several courses constituted a precedent in the press in Syria, when Al-Watan newspaper published the contents of a mail received by e-mail from (Arab nationalists movement) on the front page on 28/1/2009 under the title of: (Livni recommends the publication of articles A number of Arab writers on the site of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs as ambassadors), which stated that the Israeli foreign minister recommended the deployment of articles of a group of Arab writers, including five Syrian writers, on the site of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Because they better reflect the point of view of Israel in the face of Hamas, Hezbollah and the resistance camp, and described them as ambassadors of Israel in the Arab world.

The court ruled by obliging Al-Watan newspaper editor, Waddah Abed Rabbo, the Director of the editor George Caesar, and Mr. Said Al-Barghouti, (leader of the Movement of Arab nationalists) compensation of $300 thousand liras interdependence and solidarity among them, and a fine of 3,000 Syrian pound each one of them.

The Court justified its decision that the defendants wadhah Abed Rabbo and George Caesar carried out the transfer of information without stand on their validity, which requires delineate for publishing articles containing stabbed the private life for violating an explicit paragraph 6 of article 29 of Legislative Decree No. 50 and punished according to the provisions of article 56 item B. Regard to the defendant Mr. Barghouthi, the court has explained that he has contributed to his development by putting direct address and telephone number in the tail of the article, which requires accountability.

 

This issue took a number of paths we consider that the Syrian judiciary has succeeded in addressing. On one hand, the judiciary responded to the question of professional journalist and error when considering that of the President of the newspaper editor and managing editor (who, without the transfer of information to determine the validity of which requires accountable for publishing articles containing the appeal private life), as the moral is in the press to make every effort possible to verify the credibility of the news before it was published, especially when it affects the private lives of individuals. On the other hand, by rejecting the plaintiff's request to imprison journalists and the closure of the paper for a period of 6 months.

 

3.         The redistribution of Al-Hayat in Syria: on 27/1/2009 has allowed the re-distribution of Al Hayat in Syria following the cease distribution in Syria and the decision of the Syrian Ministry of Information on 15/7/2008.

 

4.         Lift the block on the location, the Arab Kebedea: www.ar.wikipedia.org and the site of the Free Patriotic Movement: www.tayyar.org

 

The observatory of press freedom in Syria

 

Violations of Press Freedom: (No Comment)

 

-          5/5/2008: The arrest of journalist Hummam Haddad, the writer in weekly magazine (Borsat wa Aswak), arbitrarily by the Syrian security apparatus for what is believed to be on the background of his training course in Jordan, set up by Front Line Organization about the information security on the Internet.

 

-          5/5/2008: Preventing the establishment of ceremony for magazine (Borsat wa Aswak) at the Journalists Club in Damascus. This ceremony was called for by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of speech for the occasion of delivering the shield that Center estimated to the magazine for the independence of the press, just before four hours of time, despite the approval of the Union of journalists, by Syrian security services.

 

-          7/5/2008: The journalist Habib Saleh was subjected to enforced disappearance on the hands of the military security in the governorate of Tartus, where he was abducted during walking in one of the streets of the city of Tartus and taken to an unknown destination, there were no news about him or any contact with the outside world for more than three months.

 

-          10/5/2008: the imprisonment of Blogger Tariq Biase for 6 years and reduction to 3 years by the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus, on charges of undermining national sentiment and debility of nation's psychology. Blogger Tariq Biase had been detained by the military security in the governorate of Tartus on 7/7/2007 on the background of writing commentary criticizes the Syrian security services on one of the electronic discussion forums.

 

-          25/5/2008: The prevention of the establishment of a media seminar entitled "Freedom of the press" by Syrian security services, which was hosted by the journalist Mazen Darwish at the Arab cultural centre in mazzah in Damascus at 4:00 P.M on Sunday afternoon in 2552008, in spite of obtaining prior and official consent by the Ministry of Culture according to the publication No. 311 date 1552008 without explanation for the cancellation of this symposium, which was before a quarter of an hour of the official date set out in invitation cards.

 

-          8/6/2008: Postponement of the trial of Blogger Karim Arbajy before the Supreme State Security Court indefinitely on charges of spreading false news that would undermine the national feeling. Karim Arbajy had been arrested arbitrarily on 7/6/2007 on the background of his participation in Forum management of fraternal Syria on the Internet.

 

-          15/6/2008: The prevention of the distribution of the Number 38 of the magazine Syria Today based on verbal resolution of the Ministry of Information because of a sentence in an interview the magazine done with the Secretary-General of the opposition Socialist Union Party lawyer Hassan Abdel Azim.

 

-          20/6/2008: The arrest of Sudanese journalist Hashem Othman Editor-in-Chief of the magazine (International spaces), which is printed in Damascus since three years, arbitrarily by the Syrian authorities and for unknown reasons and without any charges.

 

-          23/6/2008: Sentencing journalist Mazen Darwish of imprisonment for a period of ten days, under Article 387 of the Penal Code on charges of libel and slander from the departments of the State Assembly by the Military Court in Damascus against the backdrop of a documentary on the conduct of riots in the area of Adra, and reduce the penalty to imprisonment for five days

 

-          24/6/2008: The Syrian authorities issued a decision which prevented the entry of Arab and foreign journalists to its territory until the end of this month. Diplomatic sources said that the decision is temporary until the end of the task of the delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is visiting Syria now.

 

-          29/6/2008: Six-month prison sentence against the writer and human rights activist Mohammed Badi Dak Albab by the Military Court in Damascus, on the charge of undermining the prestige of the State in accordance with Article 278 of the Syrian Penal Code, on the background of the deployment of an article in one of the electronic sites entitled "Damascus, capital of Arab culture."

 

 

-          14/7/2008: Prevention of Lava Khaled the press reporter for Al-Jazeera Talk site to travel to the Kingdom of Jordan in order to participating in a training cycle press that she was invited to it.

 

-          15/7/2008: Closure of the Office of the London-based Journal Al-Hayat in Damascus and the prevention of the distribution of the newspaper inside Syria according to a verbal decision by the Syrian Ministry of Information on the background of publishing an article deals with Syrian participation in the summit of the Union for the Mediterranean, held in the French capital Paris by the Saudi writer Dawood Al-Shoryan.

 

 

-          16/7/2008: Blocking the cultural site (a thousand of the freedom of the disclosure of the human person in writing) www.aleftoday.net on the background of a sentence in an editorial of the President of the liberation of the site, the security services considered as it raises sectarianism. Even the writer Subhan Alsawah could not know this sentence.

 

-          20/7/2008: the sentence in absentia by the Court of the beginning of the First Criminal in Damascus on the journalist Waad Al-Muhanna who was sentenced to two months and fined 100,000 Syrian pounds and bound to pay the sum of 500 thousand liras for the prosecutor the Minister of Culture Riyad na'san Agha on the background of articles calling for the protection of historical heritage of the city of Damascus.

 

-          30/7/2008: The detention of lawyer Ali Abdullah by the Information Branch of the Department of the security of the State in Damascus where he was detained inside one of the offices in the Information Branch until the evening of Tuesday 12/8/2008 in order to force him to the closure of the site of Integrity News.

 

-          10/8/2008: The prevention of the distribution of No. 8 of the magazine monthly Issues by an oral decision of the Ministry of Information on the background of an article entitled: (who steals from whom … the Government or the citizen).

 

-          20/8/2008: Second Criminal Court in Damascus has rejected the request made by the defense for the journalist Michel Kilo to stop Provision in force against him and the sentence provided by the Syrian Penal Code, despite the availability of the conditions for obtaining a pardon than a quarter of his sentence under Syrian law, "without providing reasons for the rejection.

 

-          13/9/2008: The immigration authorities on the Syrian-Lebanese border prevented delegation from the organization Reporters Without Borders from the entry of Syrian territory and that on the decision of (agencies), according to clerks in the Syrian Ministry of Information who refused to identify such competent authorities note that the delegation was intended to visit the families of detained journalists and the establishment of a meeting with Syrian journalists by the invitation of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression in his headquarters in Damascus.

 

-          14/9/2008: The prevention of the distribution of the number 174 of the magazine Stocks and Markets (Borsat wa Aswak) by an oral decision of the Ministry of Information because of an article entitled (poverty for people ... Profits for traders ... And the statements are for the Government).

 

-          17/9/2008: The arrest of journalist Daoud Khalil Daoud Almany and keeping him in the prison of Latakia for 6 days (from 17 to 22) of September and then removed outside Syrian territory on 23 noon to Jordanian border and that without charge or to conduct an investigation on the background of published reports on the issues of corruption in the governorate of Latakia.

 

-          17/9/2008: The State Security Department began issuing lists of preventing of travel without any legal basis that hit a lot of journalists and workers in the field of intellectual and human rights defenders. The estimated numbers of people scaled up such lists is in hundreds.

 

-          28/9/2008: The prevention of the distribution of the number 176 of the magazine Stocks and Markets (Borsat wa Aswak) by verbal resolution of the Ministry of Information without the knowledge of the reasons.

 

-          29/9/2008: Blocking the site of the Arab Network for information for human rights www.anhri.net  completely after attempts to block sub-site in Syria especially www.anhri.net/Syria in 25/9/2008.

 

-          12/10/2008: Judging the journalist Fuad Sharbajy, general manager of Addonia private television channel by the Court of the beginning of the second penalty in Damascus where the decision of Judge Abir Al-Khalid was: sentencing to prison to Mr. Fouad Sharbajy for three days and fining in the amount of 100 Syrian pounds for the offence of defamation, according to articles 570 and 568 of the Syrian Penal Code on the background of an article in which he criticized the Director of the Syrian television.

 

-          12/10/2008: The prevention of the distribution of the number 177 176 of the magazine Stocks and Markets (Borsat wa Aswak)  by an oral decision by the Ministry of Information because of a meeting with trade union, Ibrahim Al-Lawzi entitled (Legislations and the game of tug-of-war between the governmental economic team and trade unions).

 

-          25/10/2008: the Ministry of Information asked the owners of the Economic Community magazine, on the impact of (alarm) of what was written in the magazine on the excavation of garbage and of what was said by deputy Hanin Nimr about the absence of the decision of the Parliament, between the abolition of the magazine's license, or to make a request by the owner to stop the issuance of the magazine for two months because of financial distress.

 

-          29/10/2008: Judging the journalist Fayez Sara to two years and a half imprisonment, and quarantine and civil forfeiture within the trials of the Group of the Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change in addition to a group of politicians and human rights activists, including journalist and writer Akram Bunni and journalist and writer Ali al-Abdullah. The journalist Fayez Sara was arrested on 3/1/2008 on the impact of its participation in a TV interview on Alhiwar Space channel discussing the arrest of members of the National Council of the Damascus Declaration.

 

-          3/11/2008: The separation of the Youth (I.M) of his work on the request of the President of the city council of Safita on the background of writing an article in the site of www.safitaclub.com talking about the corruption and mismanagement of the city council of Safita.

 

-          7/11/2008: The staff member Ayman Dib working for Damascus Insurance branch was subjected to penalty of resolving 4%of the wage for four months under the pretext of inconsistency with the decision of the Minister of Social Affairs and Labour No. 1/1602 for the year 2005 regarding the prevention of the Ministry staff dealing with the press in the internal affairs of the Ministry, on the impact of the deployment of an article in which it declared that he is to discover fraud in some of the files of Section, where the Director-General to refer the matter to the Director of Internal Oversight Services to be punished with penalty of resolving.

 

-          10/11/2008: Members of the Syrian security prevented the group of the work of "Addonia" of entry to places of the activities of Damascus Film Festival 16th, where they were expelled and prevent from media coverage on the instructions of festival director Mohammad al-Ahmad, who said later: (Yes we prevented " Addonia" because they did not interchange cordiality that we submitted to them before the launch of the festival)

 

-          17/11/2008: The presidency of the Council of Ministers prevented all public bodies, grass-roots organizations and natural and legal persons to carry out research or statistical publication contained information or statistical figures only after the approval of the Central Bureau of Statistics.

 

-          4/12/2008: The prevention of the distribution of the number 107 of the magazine (Spot Light) building on verbal decision of the Ministry of Information on the background of publishing an investigation of the fact of judicial corruption in the governorate of Aleppo.

 

-          11/12/2008: The prevention of the journalist Mazen Darwish to travel to Beirut to participate in the Arab Forum III for Free Press which was organized by the World Federation of the Press jointly with Al-Nahar newspaper. Although he showed the official invitation, which he has received from the World Federation of newspapers to deliver a speech at the Forum, held on 12 and 13 December in Beirut, but they didn't provide any explanation to him.

 

-          15/12/2008: the court of cassation in its General Assembly rejected the release of activist and journalist Michel Kilo. The judges overturned the decision of the Court of Cassation which allowed Michel Kilo to benefit from an amnesty for a quarter of the period, according to law.

 

-          26/12/2008: Information Minister, Mohsen Bilal issued orally to the editors of the governmental newspaper Ath-Thawra to suspend the journalist Fawaz Khieu the writer of corner (Abjad Heuze) in the Journal, for writing on the background of Christmas Day on 25/12/2008.

 

-          10/1/2008: The prevention of the distribution of the number 40 of the magazine Almal by an oral decision of the Ministry of Information because of an article entitled (only charity taken us further away from Somalia Pirates).

 

-          11/1/2009: The General-Director of the State Land Bank published a book on the external door of the bank as well as some sections of the Interior, which he says: "We apologize for the reception of journalists for the purposes of advertising and subscriptions, for those who wish to interview so we apologize and we will call you when necessary"

 

-          21/1/2009: Aleppo Governor issued a decision which he defined the opening hours and the closure of Internet cafes in winter: from 9 a.m. to 12 at night from the first of November until the end of summer: from 9 a.m. to 1 at night from April to the end of the month of October.

 

-          22/1/2009: The prevention of the journalists in the Journal of Ath-Thawra by Council of the governorate of Damascus of coverage of the work of its session and asked them to obtain information exclusively from the press office of the province.

 

-          29/1/2009: Journalist Lafa Ahmad Khaled Al-Jazeera Talk site reporter was exposed to pressures by the security services, where she was summoned four times to the military security branch in Damascus, the last call had been on 29-1-2009.

 

-          7/2/2009: Tourism Minister Saadallah Agha al-Qalaa refused the presence of journalists and asked them to leave the meeting of directors of the central departments in the Ministry and directors of tourism in the provinces and the Chambers of Tourism.

 

-          18/2/2009: The arrest of journalist Mohieddin Eisso Platforms site reporter for several hours while browsing the Internet in one of the general Internet cafes in the city of Homs by the Syrian security.

 

-          3/3/2009: The arrest of Chief Editor of Iraqi Massar Journal and the Director of the office of Al-Fayhaa Iraqi channel in Damascus Iraqi media haifaa al-Husseini in mysterious circumstances by the Syrian authorities and prevent any attempt to determine her destiny.

 

-          5/3/2009: Blocking the site of the Syrian Organization for Human Rights "Equal" www.shro-syria.com by the General Establishment of communications at the request of Syrian security services.

 

-          11/3/2009: General-Director of Antiquities and Museums, Dr Bassam Jamous issued circular No. 51 to prevent the television cameras in museums and archaeological sites only after obtaining the formal approval of the Directorate of Public museums in the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums in Damascus.

 

-          11/3/2009: Committee Chairman of athlete's journalists in Syria Mohammad Abbas demanded in the programme of (Aalmakshouf), which is presented by Syrian media Fayez Wahbi on screen of Arab Radio and Television, the closure of sports forums, while the media reporter for the Syrian Football national team Nadim al-Jabi demand blocking and filtering only.

 

-          15/3/2009: The writer Habib Saleh was sentenced to three years in jail on charges of publishing false news in the time of war aimed undermining national sentiment and in arousing racist prejudices and doctrinal and sedition with the aim of sectarian fighting in accordance with article (285 – 298) from the Syrian Penal Code by the criminal court in Damascus on the background of writing by one of the readers within the category of readers' views on a website a comment on an article by the writer Habib Saleh titled:(Is the Syrian regime Reluctant? When and where and how), someone thought that those comments belong to the writer.

 

-          31/3/2009: The transfer of blogger Osama Edouard Kerio, which is a teacher of English to an arbitrary region to the The compound educational in Tel Tamer in Alqamishly, which lies 100 kilometers from the place of residence, by Resolution No. 1486 / 4 /date 31 / 3 / 2009. The blogger Osama Edward was arrested on 2722008 by the General Intelligence in Damascus on the background of an article entitled (no gas, no fuel, and no electricity).

 

-          2/4/2009: the Syrian Teachers Captain Ziad Jaber expelled the Syrian journalist Bakr Muhsin, Al-Watan Journal reporter in spite of the invitation he received regarding the coverage of the sixth session of the Central Council of teachers union in the ninth period, which was held at the headquarters of the Executive Office of the Teachers Syndicate in Damascus. And after the start of discussions in the conference room of the Central Council, he shouted saying: «we don't want you, and we don't want any journalists in the conference».

 

-          3/4/2009: Hanadi Zahlout, press reporter of Institute war and peace and Thara electronic magazine, received a threat one of her relatives, who heads the Office of the media of one of the provincial assemblies of one of the Security Authorities, clearly says: "she must stop writing, or something really bothering will happen to her."

 

-          5/4/2009: The arrest of journalist and writer Farouq Haji Mustafa arbitrary by the organ of political security in the governorate of Aleppo, his fate was still unknown so far and it was believed to be on the background accompanying German press on a tour in the governorate of Al hasakah Syria.

 

-          22/4/2009: Syrian Ministry of Information rejected to provide journalists with a list of private newspapers, which is issued in Syria and the list of the newspapers, which issued by the governmental authorities.

 

-          2/5/2009: The prevention of overseas publications from entering: the previous period witnessed clear increasing in the process of the prevention of publications from entering Syria in addition to publications primarily prohibited from entering and final distribution inside Syria, such as Kuwaiti "Alsiasia" and the Lebanese "The Future", "Al-Nahar", "Al-Anwar" and "Arab Editor" and the "Middle East" from London and the international Jordanian "Truth" as well as many Iraqi and Egyptian newspapers. Many Arab and foreign newspapers were exposed to the prevention of specific numbers, because of the presence of materials contrary to the Syrian policy such as "Alhayat", "Alsafeer", "AlDiyar" and "International Reality", and decisions are still subject to the terms of reference absolute Minister of Information.

 

 

-          1/2/2009: The Israeli occupation authorities' sentences colleague journalist Atta Najib Farhat for imprisonment:

 

 

The journalist Atta Najib Farhat

 

The provision on the Syrian journalist Atta Najib Farhat Al-Watan Syrian Private newspaper correspondent, and the reporter of the Syrian television in the occupied Golan, and chief editor of "Golan Times" website for imprisonment for a term of six years were exempted from the implementation of half and a fine of six thousand dollars.

The background of the case:

 

Israeli occupation forces proceeded on 3072007 on the arrest of colleague journalist Atta Farahat, where units of the occupation police raided his house in the village of Buq'ata at 5:00 A.M. They searched the house and seized the laptop computer and the mobile phone, and took him to an unknown place. The Israeli court had approved a request for the Israeli police to arrest journalist Atta Farahat until Sunday to complete the investigation with him.

Atta Najib Farhat is Al-Watan Syrian Private newspaper correspondent, and the reporter of the Syrian television in the occupied Golan, and chief editor of "Golan Times" website www.golantimes.com was born in the village of Buq'ata in the occupied Golan, graduated from the press faculty at the Damascus University. The arrest of colleague Atta was during his work as a reporter in a climate of the discriminatory policies the occupation authorities practice against the workers the press domain and from the occupied Syrian Golan sons and especially working in the Syrian or Arabic media.

 

Fellow journalist Atta Farahat was exposed to many of harassment and violations in the course of his coverage of the activities of the people of occupied Syrian Golan. Where he was detained for 14 months but quit after 8 months and completed the remained period as house arrest. The Israeli occupation authorities also prevented him from participation in an International Research Conference, entitled "The Golan... Ending the occupation in order to achieve peace" which was held in Faculty of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. On 20/6/2007 within the context of related policies of the State of Israel in the media blackout on violations of the Syrian citizens, and the imposition of restrictions on the work of journalists in an attempt to isolate the occupied Syrian Golan from the outside world and deprive the citizens of the occupied Syrian Golan of the right to express their opinion.

In this context,

 

The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression & International Federation of Human Rights

 

Presented a complaint to each of:

 

-          Mrs. Leila Zerrougui: President and Rapporteur of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

-          Mr. Ambeyi Ligabo: The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

 

Paris, Damascus, on 11 October 2007

 

Subject: Israel-Syria / Arbitrary Detention of the journalist Atta Farhat.

 

Dear Madam, Mr.:

 

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its partner the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) commissioned by the family and lawyer of Mr. Atta Farahat:

 

We would like to share with you our concern about the work of the arbitrary arrest and detention of journalist Atta Farahat by special units of the Israeli police. Under this request to the United Nations - the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression - we call on you to take urgent action on this issue.

Mr. Atta Farahat, 35-year-old, a Syrian journalist, resident in the area of the Syrian Golan, occupied by Israel since 1967, which was annexed to the Israeli territories in 1981 in violation of the decisions taken by the United Nations Security Council, was arrested on 30 July 2007 by special units of the Israeli occupation police.

 

Mr. Farahat, born in Buka'ata, a village in the Golan Heights and graduated from Damascus University Faculty of the press, is a member of the Union of Syrian journalists, reporter for the Syrian private newspaper Al-Watan, reporter for the Syrian television, and editor of the site Golan times. On the impact of the annexation decree, the Syrian citizens in the Golan are subject to the Israeli law, and according to that, they may be pursuit if there were any contact with the Syrian press or the Syrian television. Mr. Farahat is the first journalist from the Golan Heights, since 1967, he established contacts with the Syrian media, and published articles describing the circumstances of the life of Syrians living in the occupied Golan.

At 5:00 A.M on 3072007, units of the occupation police raided his house in the village of Buq'ata. They searched the house and seized the laptop computer and the mobile phone, and arrested him. Two days after, an Israeli court approved the decision of the Israeli police to continue his detention. And today, he is still detained in (Aljamla) Israeli prison (after 14 km south-east of Haifa). He was taken several times before an investigating judge, and he has not been charged so far with any crime and waiting for his presentation to the judge before the verdict, and until this day, the investigating judge refuses the request for provisional release. The reasons for his detention did not declare until now, both the defense counsel and the Israeli press are prohibited from the definition of his case, but according to the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression it is possible that Atta Farahat is wanted on charges of dealing with an enemy nation. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its partner the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) condemn the attempts of the Israeli authorities to isolate the occupied Syrian Golan from the outside world and depriving the Syrian people in the Golan from exercising the right to freedom of expression.

 

And more specifically, The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its partner the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) consider the action of arbitrary arrest and detention of Atta Farahat directly linked to the exercise of freedom of opinion and expression as defined in article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We hope that the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression are able to take action, as soon as possible, and raising this matter with the Israeli authorities.

 

We thank you in advance for your attention and we hope that you will hesitate to contact us in case you need any additional information.

Yours sincerely,

 

Mazen Darwish            Suhair Belhassen

President of The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)            President of The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

 

 

Freedom of Press in Syria in the Eyes of International Organizations 

 

Syria is in rank 159 universally out of 173 states, according to annual classification by the Organization Reporters without Borders for the year 2008.  

Syria is one of 10 countries in the world that has hostility of the Internet, according to the Organization Reporters without Borders.  

Syria is in rank 177 in the world in a total of 195 states, according to annual classification by the organization Freedom House for the year 2009. 

Syria is occupying the third rank in the list of 10 countries of bloggers according to the report of the Commission on the Protection of Journalists for 2009.

 

 Syria is among the countries of the world that is still harsh to freedom of information. As press freedom does not fall within the agenda of the Arab Maghreb countries and all the Middle East, as we can put some examples within this framework of the Whole. The legislation of reactionary and repressing freedoms (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Syria....)

 

Recommendations

 

We must provide the essential conditions in any society for the freedom of opinion and expression, which constitute major incubator for the growth of a free media is capable of carrying out the functions of the press independently. These conditions are:

-          The presence of a democratic system based on the basis of citizenship and good governance and the peaceful rotation of power at all levels.

-          Legislative structure to ensure freedom of access to information and freedom of circulation by all means compatible with global standards for freedom of opinion and expression, supported by the regime of an independent judiciary.

-          A community-environment respects the difference and diversity and freedom of belief and the other opinion and rejects the mentality of close and the prohibition.

 

And accordingly, it is absurd to talk about free and independent information without the availability of the previous conditions. However, we must start with basic procedures that pour in this direction, such like:

1.         Immediately hasten the settlement of the job situation of the Syrians reporters and to ensure their financial rights and inclusion in the social insurance system According to legal and constitutional formulas.

2.         The abolition of the Publications Act in force, and adoption of the law and in conformity with international standards of freedom of expression and media, as to constitute the protection of the profession of the press and journalists, and establishes for the establishment of free and independent press institutions,.

3.         The abolition of rules of procedure of the Syrian Journalists Union. And transformation into a genuine independent trade union that affiliates no one. So as to develop the profession of journalism and protecting and defending the interests of journalists on the grounds of trade union,  according to the moral values of the profession of journalism, and allow the establishment of multiple unions.

4.         The liberalization of the media from State control through the cessation of the monopoly of fundamental governmental bodies in the information process such as distribution and Advertisements and the abolition of the Ministry of Information and replacing it  by a Council of independent information.

5.         The immediate enactment of the law of the right of access to information and the adoption of the principle of maximum disclosure of information and the free exchange of information and protection of governmental drains in line with international standards.

6.         The freedom of ownership of media prints, visual and audio and sufficiency the system of notification founding purposes and to develop mechanisms for the work of that in legislation.

7.         The cancellation of all the restrictions imposed on the Internet and the policies of filtering and control and to encourage Internet media, blogging and forming electronic free media societies.

8.         To allow the foundation of a trade union, especially for publishers of newspapers and publications to sponsor their interests and regulate their relations.

9.         The establishment of a partnership between civil society bodies and specialized media institutions, for the training of media cadres and the development of their professional capabilities, and work to improve the morals of the profession and to provide protection and support to journalists.